A New Model for Automatic Raster-to- Vector Conversion

A New Model for Automatic Raster-to-
Vector Conversion
Shereen A. Taie 1 , Hesham E. ElDeeb 2 , Diyaa M. Atiya 3
1 Mathematics Department, Computational Science Branch, Faculty of Science
, Cairo University, Egypt
1 sh.taie@yahoo.com
2 Electronic Research Institute, Computer and Control Department, Egypt.
2 heldeeb@mcit.gov.eg
3 Mathematics Department, Faculty of Science
, Cairo University, Egypt
3 diyaa.atiya@yahoo.com
Abstract
There is a growing need for automatic digitizing, or so called automated raster to vector conversion (ARVC) for maps.
The benefit of ARVC is the production of maps that consume less space and are easy to search for or retrieve information
from. In addition, ARVC is the fundamental step to reusing old maps at higher level of recognition. In this paper, a new
model for an ARVC is developed.
The proposed model converts the “paper maps” into electronic formats for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and
evaluates the performance of the conversion process. To overcome the limitations of existing commercial vectorization
software packages, the proposed model is customized to separate textual information, usually the cause of problems in the
automatic conversion process, from the delimiting graphics of the map. The model retains the coordinates of the textual
information for a later merge with the map after the conversion process. The propose model also addresses the localization
problems in ARVC through the knowledge-supported intelligent vectorization system that is designed specifically to
improve the accuracy and speed of the vectorization process. Finally, the model has been implemented on a symmetric
multiprocessing (SMP) architecture, in order to achieve higher speed up and performance.
Keywords: Automatic vectorization, GIS, SMP.
Published In: International Journal of Engineering and Technology, Vol.3 (3), 2011, 182-190.
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